India Pharma Outlook Team | Tuesday, 21 October 2025
AbbVie Inc. has fully acquired Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals' lead investigational candidate, bretisilocin, which represents a major expansion of AbbVie's neuroscience pipeline.
Bretisilocin is a new, short-acting serotonin 5-HT2A receptor agonist and 5-HT releaser, currently in Phase 2 clinical trial, in patients with moderate-to-severe major depressive disorder (MDD). As the next generation 5-HT2A receptor agonist, bretisilocin is a product of innovation and is aimed at overcoming problems of developmental studies of classical psychedelics, thus opening up a new horizon of possibilities in MDD therapy.
"Clinical results obtained recently have proved that bretisilocin can give a major breakthrough to patients with MDD," said Daniel Mikol, M.D., Ph.D., Vice President of Neuroscience Development at AbbVie.
"Indeed, after the acquisition, our first action will be to speed up the clinical trials of this revolutionary compound. It is highly rewarding to us, at AbbVie, to reaffirm our pledge by scientific evidence, to be of real help to individuals who suffer from serious mental health problems and are in dire need of treatment."
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By this acquisition, AbbVie is doubling down on its commitment to discovering next-generation treatments for illnesses of the brain, thus opening up the opportunity to tackling the issue of mental health, the largest area of unmet need.
The addition of bretisilocin to AbbVie's portfolio of products is a signal of the company's intention to expedite clinical trials and make this potential new drug available to patients with MDD as soon as possible.
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